Object Reflection: is a feature in Java which provides a way to get reflective information about Java classes and objects, such as:

1) Getting information about methods and fields present inside the class at run time

2) Creating a new instance of a class

3) Getting and setting the object fields directly by getting field reference, regardless of what the access modifier is.

import java.lang.reflect.*;

public class Sample {

    public static void main(String args[]) {

    try {
            Class c = Class.forName(“java.sql.Connection”);
            Method m[] = c.getDeclaredMethods();
            for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
                System.out.println(m[i].toString());
            }
        } catch (Throwable e) {
            System.err.println(e);
        }
    }          
}

This code’s output is the names of the first 3 methods inside the “java sqlConnection” class (with fully qualified parameters)

Why it is useful:

1) Helps in observing or manipulating the runtime behavior of applications.

2) Useful while debugging and testing applications, as it allows direct access to methods, constructors, fields, etc.